Recording Your Heritage Online

'Greek' Thomson's earliest surviving villa. Originally L-plan design in his Italianate phase, as used the previous year at Craig Ailey, Kilcreggan (see North Clyde Estuary Guide). Here the tower is a major compositional feature, between two gables linked by a low roof and an open entrance porch, with a very low-pitched roof in front. Although he was to abandon the arches favoured by his first partner and brother-in-law John Baird II in 1855, the chimneypots remained a Thomson signature feature. Interior largely intact, billiard room added c.1899, John Campbell McKellar. Attractive little Lodge, originally a coach house, with similar details and ornate timber gates to Albert Drive. Garden wall and gate to Ayton Road, rebuilt 1873 with fireclay balustrade and wide gateway.

Taken from "Greater Glasgow: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Sam Small, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk